Iconic Downtown Colorado Springs Olympic mural to be taken down

The view into downtown Colorado Springs is getting a big change. An iconic mural for the Olympic Committee will be taken down in late August.

It has sat right alongside Interstate 25 since August 11, 2011, on a shed’s roof between Bijou and Cimmaron. Now, the owner of the building Chuck Murphy, says it’s time for something new.

Back in 2011, the mural was hand painted by Kim Polomka, an artist originally from Australia who now lives in Colorado Springs. He’s painted several other murals across downtown.

Murphy says he intended to develop the land in the area, but hasn’t been able to. That’s when he reached out to Polomka to make the mural, but it came with challenges. “The thing was when I was doing the design and laying it out, the problem was the angle of attack that’s because it was diagonal and the corrugated line and the surface of it,” Polomka says.

The mural was only supposed to be up for a year, but Murphy kept it up because of the positive feedback. Since then, the building has started to fall apart.

Now Murphy and Polomka want to paint something new. The building sits in a perfect advertising spot for thousands of people to see it, but Murphy says he wants the mural to honor Colorado Springs.

“The highest bidder may put something on there that I don’t like and the whole idea is to celebrate the city,” Murphy says.

He says he’s in talks with Cheyenne Mountain Zoo about making the new mural dedicated to them, but nothing has been officially decided.

Reconstruction of the new sign should start in late August.